to want people to stop saying cupcakes and call them fairy cakes instead?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I don't know why I care really.

I just think that they should be called fairy cakes like days gone by

Saw Hummingbird cupcake book in a shop and thought should be Hummingbird fairy cakes.

Or is it just me?

Up until the great Nigella cupcake revolution I always thought cupcakes were those small cakes that didnt quite reach the top of the casing so that when you put the icing in, it would lie flat.
Fairycakes had a domed top that could be cut off to turn them into butterfly cakes.
Lately they (cupcakes) seem to have morphed into larger fairy cakes with posher flavours and toppings.
I, personally, think you cant beat the classic little cake with water based icing sprinkled with hundreds and thousands or maybe a slice or two of those jelly orange segments!

another vote for buns.

are any of the other posters calling them buns irish by any chance?

Butterfly buns! Sheesh!

Buns buns buns buns buns buns buns

Or that's what I ate when I was a little girl anyway

My cupcakes are fab - even if I do say so myself - yes they are bigger than fairy cakes, so will stay as cupcakes in my eyes

nope! they are different
fairy cake is british mishapen cake with icing
cup cake is blousy american cake too much icing

SM - I'm liking the term "blousy"

Definately buns around my way.

I'd be most unimpressed if you offerred me a bun and handed me a breadcake.

This is a bun.

This is not.

Oh, does anyone remember Paris buns with the big sugar on top?

I thought that fairy cakes were just the small cakes in cases with currants and no icing. I wouldn't use cup cake at all. I would call them all buns, and that includes fairy cakes.

I remember those. They had raisins in them though did they not? I'm sure that was why I didn't like them.
My mother bought from Parrs bakery on a Saturday while I had a yum yum or a Danish.

Bought one sorry.

Good Lord,

You do realize the cookbook is recipes of things from the Hummingbird Bakery, which is an American bakery in London right?

Of COURSE they call them cupcakes...

Depends where you are from.

Had never heard of a fairy cake until I moved here, all varieties were cupcakes, and I am definitely not American, I promise!

They are buns. End of!

£10 a head????

My sister shanghaied me into making 'a few' cupcakes for my nephew's party - turned out to want 48 of them ('just in case') - but the ingredients only cost me (I say me, she still owes me for the Sainsbo's trip!) about £7 in total - and that included white chocolate icing, buttercream icing, royal icing, dolly mixture/choc button sprinkles/silver balls and fondant flowers (she doesn't bake so I had to buy the lot from scratch)!

I'm in the wrong business....

Buns are bready sultana-ish things with a slick of white or pink icing on top. Fairy cakes are little things you make in a bun tin (so perhaps that's where the confusion arises?), cupcakes are made in muffin tins and have loads of icing, butterfly cakes can be either but all have the tops cut off and in half, a wodge of buttercream and jam/lemon curd in the resulting dip and the 'wings' positioned on top.

buns=buttocks

buns buns buns

buns makes a me think maximus gluteus

Yes, I'm a for-ing-er having settled here. Intially confused, but now understand, cupcakes - towered with buttery sugary creamy goodness and fairy cakes mmm delicious icy candy-like topping. I buy one or the other almost daily, and to avoid the glare of the behind the counter woman, have figured it out.

Never hear of a fairy cake across the pond though so be warned

I always thought that fairy cakes had the top cut off, replaced with butter icing, and the top cut in two and balanced in the icing to look like wings. Maybe it was just my Mum.

Stealthsquiggle, LOL at the idea of an aggressive cake! Maybe hot, cross buns? Or, in a comedy club, a heckles cake?

Those are butterfly cakes Rebecca. They are also fairy cakes of course but when you do that they become butterfly cakes.

letthereberock - i like the photo you posted of the cherry BUN! my mum used to make ones just like that.

buns, they are all buns.........!